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It’s the busiest time of the year for almost everyone except real estate agents. If you are considering moving, now is the time to do it. The competition is limited and you should be able to get your offer accepted.

Here are some easy tips.

1. Visit the houses that have been on the market the longest. Some of those homes are exceptional.

2. Call the agent to see if you can easily get in to see the house. If the agent is eager to let you see it, that’s a very good sign.

3. Place an offer. Try making an offer for 5% below the asking price. You may be surprised at the response.

A notice of default is very stressful. Whether you are underwater or have some equity in your house, you will quickly need to decide whether you want to save your house or sell it.

There are a number of things to consider. I’ll suggest some alternatives in later blogs but for now, I suggest you consider wholesaling your house. Wholesalers, like us, offer you a way to clean up your credit and take a nice down payment with you if you decide to move.

If your house goes into foreclosure, they will auction it off and you will lose your equity. Not to mention, your credit will be damaged for years. Therefore, consider letting a wholesaler get you top dollar for the sale and take over your mortgage and title.

I noticed something the other day. When I search through the MLS listings, I feel really connected to the houses with a special effect called HDR. The pictures using this technique make the house look like a piece of art…it really draws me in.

It makes me study the picture more. So I am more likely to click on the listing. It also makes the house seem sophisticated. Frankly, it makes me want to visit the house.

You don’t have to have a mansion or high-end property to use HDR. Any good graphic artist or buying software like Photoshop will help you enhance your photos.

I love getting information from real estate agents. They always know the trends. Spoke with a realtor in Georgia last week.

He mentioned that investors are still buying everything up. However, he said that investors are not buying much over 100K in the Atlanta region. Some of them are from places like Australia and they only buy starter homes. After they buy them, they go back home and sell them to people who want to invest in American properties. They set up the property managers and everything else so it’s an easy sell.

When you are buying a house, the best advice I received was to stay off the radar. Don’t buy any new cars, don’t get a new credit card, don’t switch jobs. Stay still until you get your place. You don’t need to risk any changes to your credit score.

When calling an agent or seller to make an offer, make sure you don’t sound excited. This might be common sense, but you really want to play it cool.

If the agent says, “I have a lot of offers on this one.” Say, great! That means you won’t pressure me to go over my price (hehe). If your agent calls for you, let them know that you don’t want to be intimidated. If it doesn’t happen, so what.

Overbid for the house only if you really want it. The truth is, you may not need to. Just know that about half of the offers agents receive are not over asking. The other buyers may have strong credentials, but they may not. Only 30% of the offers are made from cash buyers. Besides, you really want to base your decision on the current rate the houses in that area are selling for per square foot.

Try to have at least 1 or 2 other houses on your list. Desperation can be sensed a mile away. If you don’t get this one, you’ll get the next one. About 5 million houses are sold per year. One of those has to be the one you want.

I love the Beverly Hillibilies theme song. I really do. I especially love the hospitality those kin folks showed on the show.

When you are having an open house, should you make buyers take their shoes off? I think it’s ok. As a first-time buyer, I may kind of stare at the agent at first when I’m asked to take my shoes off. I wonder, do my feet stink? Do I have holes in my socks?

After the initial anxiety, I appreciate the fact that they want me to. Shows me that the seller cares about their house. However, if I truck through your house and see a bunch of stains on the carpet or something else out of order, then I’m going to think your anal behavior was just for show.

On the other hand, I could look at it another way. Maybe the seller isn’t sure they really want to sell so they don’t want us dirtying up their house. I guess it goes both ways. Taking off my shoes won’t make me make an offer any faster. But I don’t think buyers will be offended.

Have you ever thought about open houses? I mean concept is pretty outrageous. Perfect strangers who look you up on the Internet are allowed to come to your house, while you still live there, and look at all your stuff.

Yeah, yeah…they are “checking” out the house. No doubt they are. But how come criminals don’t scope out the newspaper and check out all the open houses? Wouldn’t that be a good way to see which place to burglarize.

I’m sorry folks. I have a criminal justice background! I can’t help but think how illogical it is to just open up your house to strangers. Isn’t it enough that ANYBODY can find out where you live? Do you have to let them have a sneak peak into all your goodies.

Screen these people coming through your doors. We have the PERFECT platform for it. Sign up…like right now!

Am I greedy? I don’t think so. I am pretty generous in many ways. So am I greedy to think about pocketing a 3% commission and going it alone?

I don’t know. Listing agents nowadays have it pretty easy. A house in the burbs of Atlanta [in the same neighborhood of a house that goes up for auction on our site in December] sold in 7 days. 7 days people.

The listing agent didn’t really have to do anything but list it on the MLS. It’s in a super nice neighborhood so it sells itself really. They scored a $12,000 paycheck for listing in a seller’s market. Should you save your dough and list it yourself?

Not looking forward to a slow Christmas season for real estate? Us neither. Trying to get someone to move during one of the busiest times of the year sucks big time.

Here’s a suggestion: light it up! Our suggestion is a bit unconventional, but so is selling your house during the holidays.

When you put up your Christmas lights this year, make your For Sale sign sparkle. Buy a Santa and put him on top of a moving truck. If you do it up really nice, you may even get your house featured on your local news. They love cheesy stuff like that for their Christmas lights feature.